Our food - Derbyshire Catering Service

Food That Fuels Learning

At Derbyshire Catering Service, we’re proud to serve fresh, nutritious meals made from high‑quality, responsibly sourced ingredients. Every dish is cooked on site or in a local hub kitchen by our skilled catering teams, many of whom have worked with us for over a decade.

Our food development team keeps menus exciting by introducing new flavours, seasonal options, and dishes that reflect current food trends, all while meeting national nutritional standards.

Whether serving young learners or growing teens, our goal is simple: fresh, safe, tasty food that pupils enjoy and schools can trust.

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Fresh Food, Made Locally

We proudly prepare all meals and desserts fresh on site or in one of our local hub kitchens. Every dish is cooked by trained catering professionals who are passionate about serving pupils the very best. Many of our team members have been with us for over a decade, bringing expertise, creativity, and care to every plate.

Food That Supports Healthy Futures

Food is fuel and we make sure it’s the right kind.
We carefully design our menus to ensure they meet national nutritional requirements while still being exciting and full of flavour.

Here’s how we do it:

No genetically modified ingredients in any meal

No undesirable additives or artificial trans fats

Herbs and natural flavours instead of added salt

33% less sugar in our desserts

Baked or steamed dishes to lock in nutrients

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Overall, 72% of all raw ingredients used in our meals are sourced in the U.K (that’s 13% higher than the national average) and we have strict criteria for all of our ingredients.

For example:

all meat served is British and farm assured, meaning it can be traced back to the farm
all eggs are British Lion stamped
no fish that is served is on the Marine Conservation Society fish to avoid list

We love cooking

With great food comes great responsibility and our catering teams are up to the challenge.

All our meals, sandwiches and desserts are made fresh on site or at a local hub kitchen every day by our talented teams. We are very proud of our cooks, some of whom have won awards for their skills in national competitions.

Many of our catering staff members have worked with us for over a decade. Our knowledgeable health and safety team ensure that all team members are trained to create tasty, nutritional, and safe meals for pupils to enjoy.

We are lucky to have passionate and caring catering teams who only want the best for pupils.

The School Food Standards

The school food standards are intended to help children develop healthy eating habits and ensure that they get the energy and nutrition they need across the whole school day. For DCS we believe that is it an important to cook food that looks good and tastes delicious, while adhering to the standards.

As part of the school food standards, it is important to provide a wide range of foods across the week. Variety is key, whether it is different fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses or types of meat and fish.

School Food Standards